We have plainty of difficuties with understanding what people write;
distinguishing linguistic nuances, as you call them, Brian, (guessing
what they really think when they say it) is "too much to ask", I think.
I have a copy of a copy of Bruce's article (with a lot of margin notes
which are not mine) and will send it to you today. It a copy I made during
the workshop for physics teachers in Arizona. This thread was triggered
by a conversation about Sherwood's article. How to teach about work, heat
and energy was one of the concerns at this workshop. I hoped that phys-L-ers
will help to clarify the issue at the level that most high school physics
teachers can understand. But you you are the only one who actually responded
to the hypothetical high school physics problem posted two days ago. If we
had several resopnses ....
Never mind, this is probably not the end of the story. Perhaps responses
will start to arrive. If not I will start the thread again in a month or
two and continue, unless somebody convince me that I am wrong. I know that
many people are away.
Have a good day, Ludwik Kowalski